Congress

Rep. Allen West Refuses to Concede

Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., is refusing to concede after election officials declared his Democratic opponent the winner on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.

State officials say Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy was the winner by 2,442 votes. And with 50.4 percent of the vote, his margin of victory is beyond the half-point needed for a recount.

“We’re simply not going to just walk away from the race until we see that the numbers add up,” West campaign manager Tim Edson told the AP.

Late on Saturday, election officials in St. Lucie County said they would recount their 37,000 early voters on Sunday, Fox News reported. The West campaign said there were “possibly irregularities” in the county.

“This decision should help shed light on the situation of this election,” the campaign said in a statement. “This is the action we were seeking to ensure the results of this election were fair and accurate.”

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Murphy declared victory on Wednesday. The race was one of the more expensive and heated races in the country.